1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an electrical connector comprising a female housing and a male housing fitted to the female housing, in which not only wires connected to the female and male housings can be connected together but also wires connected to the female or the male housing can be connected together, respectively.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, as a connector having a joint terminal similar to the present invention, there was known a connector disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Utility Model Publication No. 57-31791.
As shown in FIG. 1, the connector 11 comprises a connector housing 12 in which a plurality of female terminals 13 connected to wires 14 are accommodated, a joint terminal 15 having a plurality of tab portions 15a to be fitted to the female terminals 13, respectively, and a cover 16 for securing the joint terminal 15 to the female terminals 13. Namely, according to the prior art connector, it is possible to electrically connect some of the female terminals 13 which are necessary to be connected to each other by the joint terminal 15. One of the wires 14 connected to the terminals 13 joined by the joint terminal 15 could be served as a branch wire, so that according to the connector such a branch wire could be easily obtained.
However, the prior art connector 11 only serves to make electrical connection between the terminals 13 accommodated in the housing 12. This means that the connector 11 can not be used as a normal connector which is to be connected to another connector for achieving electrical connection therebetween. Further, in the prior art connector 11, since the wires 14 connected to the terminals 13 are extended toward the one direction, it is difficult to connect wires to the opposite direction due to the necessity of turning the wires to that direction. Therefore, use of the connector is relatively limited.